The Five Trials of the Slave
by SonicAnime.net Role Players
Summary: 11 Mobians a transported from their respective dementions to a dead world. There, they must work together to solve the mystery on why they are there; while dealing with the inner-struggling vampire king, Sonic the Hedgehog, who must face his worst fears w


"The Five Trials of the Slave"

written by the Role Players

Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are © and ™ SEGA - Sonic Team  
Piro Edge is © to Sonic Remix (Julie-Su Shadow)  
Gryph Coppertail is © to Gryph Coppertail  
Shukron is © to Nintakuhunter  
Draco Strife is © to Draco Strife  
DK is © to Dark Knuckles  
Grey is © to Bane Keldare  
Martyn is © to Darkblade

This fanfic is the work of 7 (READ: SEVEN) authors and stealing this story or distrubuting without permission wiull result in seven authors and their pals to come burn your house down...SO DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT STEALING OUR MATEREAL!

Head Author Note: Hiyas, Sonic Remix from here! I'm here on behalf of the Role Players to present what is being deemed one of the best pieces of writing on since Running-Wolf's 'Fear Factor'. If you're on message boards; you'll know this fic is based on the admin's board RPs that we been doing. If you're NOT, then I'll tell you that the Role Players consists of: Me (Julie-Su Shadow); Gryph Coppertail, Nintakuhunter, Draco Strife, Bane Keldare, and Darkblade. Now, a LOT of us (Me, Gryph, Draco, Bane, and Darkblade) are experienced board RPers, with out last great work dating back to the Sonic Underground days. But with those days long gone, we moved on to Sonic X related RPs; and we got back together to do this! NOW, a bit of warning before we start: There is some LIGHT Sonadow in this piece of work; but it is tasteful to a point that; NO; there IS no sexual activity. Still, if you're sensitive about Sonic and/or Shadow being gay, I don't want to hear it. Get it? But don't let one issue of morality turn you off from an obvious great piece of work from seven of the best Sonic fanfic writers on the internet! Comments are appreciated. Oh yea! You might notice that Shadow carries plasma pistols in this story. Believe it or not, this RP started like a month before the Shadow game was EVER announced. Maybe I have ESP since I control Shadow in the RP. LOL! Anyway, enjoy!

Sonic Remix  
Chapter1: Arrival

A black hedgehog with red strips stood in a pile of rubble. The skies above were gray and dead as was the ground. Beside him were a black robot and a human.  
"What happened?" the boy asked.  
"We must of tripped something in the lab. Perhaps a chaos control," the black hedgehog suggested. He glared at the black robot. "Perhaps you'd like to share with us, Bokkun?"  
The robot sweatdropped. "Don't look at me, Doc tells me nothin!"  
The boy sighed. "So where are we, Shadow?"  
Shadow looked around. "I don't know, Chris."

Very far away, in another pile of dead rubble, a red griffion and an orange hedgehog appeared, facing off a hooded green cloaked figure.  
"Game over, Alpha! You're-HUH!" The orange hedgehog looked around before glaring at the green hooded figure. "What trickery is this!"  
A small chuckle emerged from the hooded figure, bright red tinted gold eyes gazing out from the shadow of the hood. "Trickery? Why Piro, have you forgotten about my abilities already? For a Hunter you sure forget easily..." Smirking now the figure darted off for the nearby woods before either creatures could blink much less react.  
Growling in frustration the griffin sighed and shoved her long ears behind her shoulders to get them out of the way. "Damnit, if I'd of known he was going to pull off a Chaos Control I would of stopped it! I don't even know where we are!"

"Dead. This whole place is dead. Whatever happened here I'm rather upset I missed it." said the robotic echidna. His orange fox companion stood next to him. "Think that explosion was some sort of teleport? I knew those damn Chaos Emeralds were too unstable." The orange fox surveyed the surroundings. Even though he did not have his comrade's psychic abilities, it didn't take much to agree with him. The whole landscape from the hill they stood was all brown, waterless and decaying.  
"Think Cain and his entourage came through too? We're still under contract you know." asked the fox. "If he did, he won't last long. It'll be a matter of time. I don't see any water available at all." replied the echidna. The fox swore under his breath. "Well, we still get paid if he's dead. Only problem is that includes us too, which means we better find everything we need to last us a few days."

Chris, Bokkun and Shadow travelled across the land, looking for any signs of life when they came across Gryph and Piro.  
"Well," Shadow started. "I know Hunters when I see them."  
"Ah a fellow Hunter," Piro stated. "Finally, we're getting somewhere."  
"Hang on," Gryph replied, putting a feathered hand before Piro. "This guy looks familiar."  
Piro cocked her head to one side. "You're right. What's your name, hedgehog?"  
"Hey! That's Shadow you're talking to, ladies!" Chris said, getting between Shadow and the girls.  
"Easy Chris, let's hear them out. Sheesh, you're always so supicious!" Shadow glared at his companion.  
"Shadow...he-" Gryph started to say but Piro covered her mouth. With her other hand, she reached out and shook Shadow's hand. "Hi, I'm Piro, nice to meet you. Big Beak here is Gryph, my comrade in Hunting."  
Shadow shook her hand. "Nice to meet you both. So is there anything around here we could...like maybe...find food or shelter or something?"  
Piro shrugged. "I dunno, we just got here...we were kinda hoping you knew.."  
Shadow sighed. "Lemme guess, Chaos Control."  
"You too?" Piro looked shocked.  
"HAHA!" Bokkun laughed. Shadow growled and grabbed Bokkun's leg. "THIS is Bokkun. Maybe HE could explain a few things."  
Bokkun flailed. "Don't look at me, I didn't do nothing!"  
Shadow sighed and pointed to Chris. "This is Chris, MY partner. Where were you guys when you got here?"  
"Big ugly castle. We tracked down the Alpha and was about to kill him when SOMEONE pulled a Chaos Control!" Piro growled.  
"Whoa wait, you two were tracking the Alpha?" Shadow asked, disbelief in his voice.  
"Yea, why?" Gryph asked.  
They were disrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching them.  
"WHO'S THERE!" Bokkun yelled stupidly, giving away their position.  
Emerald eyes glared angerly at the small bot as the half griffin, half rabbit snatched Bokkun from the air. "Thank you very much for giving our postion away stupid thing." Frustrated she tossed it over at Shadow, deciding for now to not question how he was alive and well. Peircing eyes turned in the direction the footsteps were coming from as she knew out of all of them her eyesight was the best, large wings unfolding slightly.

After about an hour of traveling, the fox and echidna reached the ruins of what looked like an impressive city. Not much was left, as if a nuclear bomb had reduced it to rubble. The two bounty hunters had been around radioactive zones before,so the echidna had a built in geiger counter just in case of an emergency. Thannkfully there was no radiation, so the two entered the city any source of food or water...or hopefully their target.  
"I really missed out. This place is completely trashed." said the echidna. The fox sighed. "You know, I know we have a lot of leeway in our missions, and sometimes it's hella fun to really blow stuff up, but can't you at least show SOME concern over civilians?" The echidna just glared at him. "Forget I asked." said the fox, rolling his eyes. It was at that moment someone, or something shouted from the distance down the street. "WHO'S THERE?" The fox and echidna looked at each other. "It's probably Cain. Good. He'll tell us how to get back." said the black echidna. "If not?" asked the orange fox in return. "Well, we'll just have fun putting him and his buddies out of their misery. No use in keeping him alive if we can't get paid." said the echidna as a rather large cannon rotated upwards on right shoulder. The fox slipped off the large plasma rifle he had slung over his back.  
The two carefully went up the street, weapons at the ready. The fox held his rifle leveled, while the echidna held a rather large katana in both of his robotic hands. DK's infared had already picked up some faint heat signatures close by. DK hand signaled his comrade to split up and attack from two sides. If it was their target, they won't know what hit them...

Shadow looked around with some urgency.  
"What is it?" Chis whispered.  
"Whoever they are, they're alive," Piro whispered.  
"Maybe they're friendlies," Chris suggested.  
"I dunno," Shadow said, silently slipping out his plasma pistols from his belt. "I got the feeling we're being hunted."  
"And like many things, in groups, " Piro said, unstrapping her two-bladed sword from her back.  
Chris pulled out his swords strapped to his sides. "What do you think, Shadow?"  
Shadow listened out. He hadn't become a great hunter for nothing. "They're surrounding us..."  
"Two of them," Gryph said, pulling out her cross bow. "I can't see them, but I can see where the rocks are shifting.  
Bokkun just sat there, quivering, ready to bolt of anything tries to attack.

A single pair of golden eyes peered out from the shadows of the nearby ruins. The cloaked figure watched with the silence of one who requires no breath to live. Silently a smirk appeared within the darkness, a single sharp fang making itself known now. Within the concealing hood a pair of ears twitched at the sound of creatures moving, the scent of hidden blood reaching its nose now. Grinning to itself it disappeared, moving with silence of the wind to another place to hide.

_They know we're coming._ said the echidna to himself. _No matter. They have no idea what they're getting themselves into. I will destroy them like everything else that gets in my way._ He slided along the corner where his prey is. The fox will attack from the other side. It almost seemed too easy. Now to disorient them. He pulled a flash grenade from his belt, pulled the pin, and quickly tossed the grenade to the side. The concussion should disorient them enough to get rid of them quickly. As soon as he heard the loud BANG, he and the fox quickly turned the corner and charged.

A noise drew Piro's attention to see the grenade landing on the ground. She yelled "GRYPH!"  
About the same time Chris yelled "Shadow!" to draw his attention. Gryph was on her toes to concerntrate on forming a little escape method.  
Shadow yelled. "SHIT!" He pulled out an emerald fast. "CHAOS CONTROL!"  
The 5 dissappeared JUST as the grenade went off.  
The echidna and fox charged toward each other, hoping to deal with their now confused energies. The echidna thought to himself as he charged toward his prey. He thought he had felt some quick surge of energy as the flash bang detonated. He quickly dismissed the thought, he just may have felt the shockwave of the grenade going off.  
The two bounty hunters finally reached each other inside of a courtyard. The fox and echidna frantically spun from direction to direction. There was no one in sight. Did they know of the grenade going off? "Where did they go? You said they were here!" cried the fox, believing an ambush was imminent. The echidna quickly amplified his psychic powers to cover the entire cortyard. He did not sense the presence of anyone. It was like they had just vanished...

A blinding flash caused the figure hidden with the ruins to scream out with pain, peach fur covered hands covering blinded eyes. Unable the stand the brightness the figure tried to flee, only to wind up stumbling and landing face first. The thick wollen hood of the cloak falling back to reveal pristine cobolt blue quills of a hedgehog.

It took a moment or two for the griffin to realize that they were in a new location tho the landscape was still as dead as ever. "Chaos Control... Shadow, was that you who teleported all of us?"

"Yea, it was me," Shadow said, brushing himself off.  
"That was close," Chris added.  
"Even for me," Bokkun said.  
Piro growled. "G, open up a portal and let's get a drop on these bozos."  
Gryph immeditely concentrsated on opening a portal. Piro held her two-bladed sword level and posted it at the portal. "Say hello to mah lil friend, you bastards."

The fox and echidna continued to look around, baffled by their dissappearing prey. Suddenly a bolt of fire shot out of thin air and impacted into the echidna. The resulting explosion knocked the echidna back a good 10 feet.  
"WHAT THE-!" the fox yelled, looked back at his partner before Piro appreared from thin air behind him, kicking him in the back. Knocking the fox down, she pointed one end of her two-bladed sword at his throat. "You boys picked the wrong group to hunt."  
Shadow, Chris and Bokkun popped in behind about that time. "So what'd-SHIT!"  
Shadow knocked the others down just as a plasma bolt whizzed by them, shot from the echidna, who just started shooting off his shouldercannon wildly.  
"DAMMIT HE'S CRAZY!" Shadow yelped, grabbing Piro and Chris at relatively the same time and bolting.  
A battle screech pierced the air as a streak of red and white attacked from above. One moment it was a good fifty feet away but within seconds it was aiming for the echdina, the sound of a crossbow bolt releasing just as the griffin flared out her wings to pull up, the small projectile hitting home within the barrel of the shouldercannon.  
The echidna screamed loudly when the bolt struck home on the barrel of his plasmacaster. Malfunction and warning errors began to appear on his vision. He quickly got to his feet and pulled the bolt out of the cannon. He quickly studied the bolt. He encountered some enemies before who used crossbows before, none of them lived after he was done with them. Whoever disabled his cannon was going to suffer a crueler fate. He reached down and grabbed his katana, which had fell out of his hands after the explosion.  
"Nice shooting! You scared the living daylights out of them!" said the fox, who was walking towards the robotic echidna. "What happened to the cannon?" The echidna just held out the small bolt, then crushed it in his metal grip. "No one destroys my cannon and lives. Did you see who they were?" asked the echidna. The fox just shook his head. "It's not Cain or his entourage. Must be some of the locals." "I've got a score to settle with one of them." said the echidna, gritting his teeth. "You and me both." The fox slung his own rifle over his shoulder and drew his own two blades. The two then quickly charged down the street in the direction that their new enemies took off.

Dazed golden eyes blinked clear as the cloaked hedgehog got to his feet, rubbing recovering eyes as he listened to the sound of fighting. Shaking his head a bit the vampire turned his eyes towards a building that was mostly still intact and headed there.

In a bright flash of light a dark figure appeared on the surface of a desolate planet, one with nothing but the smell of dust in the air, and the silent screams of a past war. A ruined city wasn't more than 30 miles due east of him, a canyon 6 miles to the west, a lake of ashen water to the north, and a dead forest to the south.  
The wolf looked around at his new surroundings. "This planet, it is dead."  
Then some thing caught his mind, "What power is this?" he said turning towards the east, "So something almost as powerful as I is here? This could be interesting."  
With his last word, parts of the wolf's long dreadlocks turned white as an aura formed around him. Then, he lifted into the air and burst off towards the power that he senced, casting, "viel of shadow" upon himself enshrouding him in a cloak of invisibility.

Shadow carried Piro and Chris a pretty good distance before they stopped behind a pile of rubble.  
"This is insane, we have to stop those two," Piro muttered.  
"But how?" Chris asked.  
Piro thought for a few minutes. "I dunno. I could make a dome of fire around them, but fire's not gonna stop those energy weapons. Damn, I'd kill if my sister Terra was here..."  
Shadow looked ahead. "A chaos spear aimed at their weapons could knock them out, but I can only do it one at a time."  
"Aim for the crazy one first," Chris muttered.  
"Yea, best we disable the most dangerous." Piro added.  
"So who goes first?" Shadow asked.  
"You'd better," Piro said. "Once that fire dome goes up, vision's gonna be obscured and you won't be able to aim."  
"Good idea."

Bokkun peeked out from behind a rock, looking at the fox and echidna. No one tries to blow HIM up! He slowly reached out for one of his infamous TV bombs...  
High in the still air now the sharp eyed flyer watched the two enemies below on the ground, a small smirk across her beak as she knew the echdina was pissed now. Angling her wings slightly Gryph changed course and blinked when she spotted movement among the larger ruined buildings. Emerald eyes narrowed in anger as she began to hover in place, setting a flare bolt within her crossbow before firing it in the direction the Alpha was in.

Double images greeted the hedgehog's eyes as he was slowly getting them to work properly once more, one ear twitching before he leapt away from where the bolt landed. The flare wasn't active anymore thankfully, having instead left a visible trail in the night air as the vampire hid within the nearest building.

The echidna and fox slowly worked their way down the street. Whoever they are, they're good. "Finally, a decent challenge, right DK?" said the fox, a smirk on his face. The echidna stayed silent. His mind was focused on whoever disabled his cannon. As they were moving down the street, he quickly looked over the damage on his cannon. The bolt hit the main power cell, but it didn't hit anything else vital, so it can be replaced with one of Draco's own energy clips. Now wasn't the time for repairs though.  
"What do you think they're up..." said the fox when all of a sudden what appared to be a flurry of miniature lightning bolts slamming into the black echidna. One of the bolts slammed into his chest and another in his katana, blasting it out of his hand. The echidna was blown to the floor, and the katana flew several feet away from him. The fox turned to see what had happened. "DK! What was..." yelled the fox. Several more bolts struck this time at Draco. The bolts were extremely accurate, but to a different effect. Two bolts struck both hands, and one struck his side. All the lightining bolts fizzled away on contact, just stinging him rather than blasting him away like his comrade. "Agh...someone has lightning powers. Looks like they just wanted to disarm me." At that moment a huge pillar of fire materialized right in front of him and cascading behind him. "Okay...that works too..."  
The fire dome had surrounded them, very much real and hot. A woman's voice spoke, amplified through the crackles of the fire.  
"I am the South, the Noon, and the Summer. I am Piro, the Guardian of the South Tower of Fire. I am a Huntress and the Druidess. You have attacked us and I have acted of defense. Cease this fight, we are not your enemies unless you make us your enemies. I warn you though, do not evoke me or my sister of the circle. Our true enemy lies beyond the darkness, a great king with the powers of darkness. This is your only warning. Cease fire immeditely."  
Shadow and Chris watched from the distance, blinking at the fire dome Piro had created as she stood on the hill.  
"Shadow...she has elemental powers..." Chris said, shaking Shadow's shoulder.  
"Making her a perfect huntress..." Shadow whispered.  
"Maybe she can help you with your...abilities..." Chris suggested.  
"You mean the ones not requiring the power of Chaos?" Shadow asked.  
Chris mutely nodded.  
Bokkun watched with amazement at the fire dome he saw, and decided now was not a good time to be bomb throwing.  
Hovering in the air still the winged hunter watched the dome of fire with intrest before looking back at the building. "Damnit... He's going to get away at this rate..." Grinding her beak slightly she pumped her wings once before streaking back towards her partner. "Piro! The Alpha is going to get away!"  
"Guardian of the what?" shouted the fox. "Doesn't matter, we kill her! We've dealt with sorcerers before you know!" shouted the echidna getting to his feet. "Wait a minute. These aren't our targets to begin with. It's not Cain for sure." The echidna growled. "They dared attack me..." The fox sighed. "Listen... I got an idea. She said 'huntress' right?" The echidna raised an eyebrow. "What the hell are you getting at?" "If she's this damn good of a huntress, maybe she can help us find Cain, so we still can get paid out of all of this." The echidna grimaced. "And if she doesn't?" "We walk away and look for him ourselves, either way, we'll still find Cain and get the hell out of here." replied the fox. The fox then grinned. "One uses lighting, and this broad uses fire. They have no idea. If they do double cross us..." The echidna just held his hand up. "Just do it."  
The fox then cupped his mouth and yelled loudly. "OKAY, WE WON'T FIGHT YOU. JUST PUT OUT THE FLAMES! IT'S GETTING TOO HOT IN HERE!"  
The flame dome collasped, and Piro looked at them. "Sit tight you two, I have a problem to eliminate!" She looked at Gryph. "Show me the way."  
Shadow's ears twitched and and put a hand to the ground.  
"What is it?" Chris asked.  
"Something dark's closeby. I don't like it...its much more powerful than what I've sensed before..."  
Shadow pulled out his plasma pistols, looking at the old ruin where the blue hedgehog was hiding out. Ever so slowly, he crept towards the building.  
Nodding once the red griffin hybred once again hovered in the air as she checked to make sure her friend could see her before darting towards the ruined building, wings folded slightly to give added speed.

"Heh, this is excellent!" Shukron, the wolf, thought to himself as the ruined city came into view along with the source of the other magical power above it, "This wont be much of a challenge, I'll steal all his energy and use it to get back to my true form."  
He laughed just loud enough for it to echo out through the city as in one of the buildings he took shelter in the shadows as his invisibility dropped.  
Blue ears twitched slightly at a sound, causing the highly alert hedgehog to tense up and hide among the shadows. "Who is there?"  
Shukron brushed his dreadlocks aside and grinned at the blue hedgehog talking, but with a ghostly voice, "lae-ve this plae-sss." then stepped forward, his image blurred and transparent in nature, as if wraith like.  
Sonic's golden eyes narrowed dangerously now as he tensed his quills, both ears flat as if ready to attack. "No one tells me what to do" He turned to the wraith wolf, but wha happened next was beyond belief.  
The walls of the buildings were BLEEDING, hundreds of bodiless and etherel spirits and flying in and out of the windows, many of which noticed him and began to fly in for the attack, all the while a loud high pitched scream, that sounded like a thousand people screaming in agony along with hundreds of moans, blaired through his ears as everything in sight gained a bright scarlet red. The wraithlike wolf steped back into the shadows as the hundreds of wraiths blasted by him, and towards Sonic.  
A savage grin formed on the vampire's face now at what he saw. His nose told him there was nothing to attack but that didn't stop him from taking enjoyment out of what he saw. Red once more tinted his eyes as his hunger grew.  
The wraits blasted through him, all seeming to tear at his clothes and very soul, but then it suddenly ended, the blood, the screams, the souls... all gone, as was the wolf, and whether or not the wolf was an illusion or real was undecernable, and his clothes and body, unscathed.  
A small snort escaped the hedgehog when they ended, a faint growl emerging now in frustration.  
In a building near Gryph, but out of direct sight, Shukron blasted into existance in a small flash of light and raised his gaze to her thinking. "Hmph, so its a female". He chuckled to himself sadisticly while thinking. "This is going to be easy, and my long, white, silky hair will be mine once more!"

"GAH!" shouted the echidna as he knelt down to the floor holding his head in agony. "DK, what's up? You all right?" shouted the orange fox. "Evil...there's something evil here." The fox looked at his friend strangely. "What do you mean, that's never bothered you before..." "No you fool...the evil we fought in Mobius doesn't compare to what I just sensed. Screams...blood...it was just too overwhelming even for me." "The people that lived here maybe?" asked the fox. "Maybe...but it felt really close, and I bet our new "friends" might have something to do with it." The fox reached his arm down to pick up the echidna, but the echidna quickly pushed it away and staggered to his feet on his own. "Let's go have a little chat, shall we? I'd like to know more about what is going on around here..."

Piro crept towards the building, her sword out, ready to call upon the power of the South Tower, when her attention was drawn by the fox. "Thought I told you two to sit tight. This is official business. There's a very dangerous creature in here."

The fox and echidna walked up to the orange hedgehog. "I dont care about official business. We want to know what's going on around here! What the hell is this place?" shouted the orange fox. The echidna stared at the ruined building Piro was guarding. _I can sense that creature she's talking about...it's neither dead, nor alive... what is it?  
_Piro growled. "You know what? I don't know where the hell we are. All I know is that I got a very dangerous creature there, and if you disrupt me again, I will seriously kick your ass."

Shadow approached the building from the opposite end, leaning against the broken wall before flipping around the corner, guns held out. "HOLD IT Y-"  
He froze, as he saw a ghost from his past standing before him, his arms immeditely lowering. "No...it...can't..."  
The green cloaked hedgehog froze in his tracks at the sound of a voice he hasn't heard in years. Red tinted eyes turned to look with disbelief at the sight of the red striped black hedgehog. "Your... Your dead... How..." For once he was too stunned to even think about fleeing.  
Tears came to Shadow's eyes as he dropped his guns. "Its you...oh Hope, its you!" He ran forward to grab Sonic in a hug.  
A surprised strangled squeek escaped the still stunned hedgehog in reaction to being grabbed up within the embrace. Trembling the vampire squirmed slightly before relaxing to the other's scent, red tinted eyes fading back to gold. Confusion still ran though his mind. "How... But... You died..."  
Shadow rocked Sonic gently in his arms. "I thought you were the one that died...I thought I lost you..."

Above the building the winged hybrid hovered in place for awhile, she saw Shadow go inside yet nothing was happening at all as far as she could tell. "Piro! Shadow's inside!"

"Excellent!" thought the wolf. "That fool is alone up there, now she just needs to get to the ground!" He hissed to himself in irritation. "If my old power was still mine... if it were still mine." He growled in irritation, but quickly stopped himself and looked around to see if anyone heard him, and attuned his mind to hear the thoughts of those around him.

"Kick my ass? Why you..." growled the fox. "Cease, Draco." said the robotic echidna, holding his hand out to keep the fox from charging. _The damn fool's short temper. But then who am I kidding?_ The echidna turned towards the orange hedgehog. "Tell me, what is it that you're so afraid of 'huntress'? If you need help dispatching it, all you need to do is ask...and have an ample back account to back it up with." The echidna could already feel the hedgehog's anger rising. He didn't care, all that matters was getting her to cooperate with them...  
Piro looked back up at Gryph before looking back at the two. "_BOUNTY_ Hunters! Oh I should of seen that one coming. Listen kiddies, this hunt's not your average smuggling cheap-ass mob boss. This is a REAL hunt. Supernatural. VAMPIRES. In there is one of the most dangerous vampires in existance, and it takes Hunterborns to kill this one. And I ain't tryin to knock off your trainin or anything, but this requires the powers of the Druid Hunters, so PIPE DOWN for 2 seconds so we can dispatch him and FIGURE OUT WHERE THE FREAK WE ARE!"  
She turned back towards the building and rushed towards it.

"Shit." thought Shukron as he looked at the winged half griffin. "She has a tough defence it almost appears mirror like in nature."  
He grinned to himself, "Lets see if there is a way in, heh, there always is." And with that thought he began his covert search for the weakness in her mental defences.

Large white wings kept the griffin hybrid in the air as she searched the area in silence. Gryph's mind had picked up something a moment ago, similier to mental energies of her people tho it felt... wrong. Drawing a single curved dagger the winged huntress slowly decended towards the ground.

Within the building the cloaked hedgehog was actually begining to doze off within the other's embrace. He remembered how during a hunt the black one was killed while he himself was chasing the night's target. Coming back to find the other's life gone had sent him into the worst possible rage that gripped him for many years.

_A vampire, eh? So that's why I felt that the creature was undead. Bah, a stake to his heart gets him every time. Even one of Robotnik's SWATbots could figure that out. _thought the echidna to himself. He and his partner have been through a lot, even crazed sorcerers, but have never to date been up close with a vampire. "Who's she kidding? We're the most infamous bounty hunters in all of Mobius! What's one vampire going to do to the two of us?" shouted the fox angrily. The echidna just looked at him. "Never mind. We just leave her alone." muttered the echidna silently. "What? We're just going to sit here and do nothing! How are we supposed to get her on our..." stammered the fox impatiently, before the echidna interrupted him. "I said shut up. I sense that she was just as confused as we were. Let her deal with her own problem first. If she can take that vampire on her own then we let her. We'll find out what is really going on after. If she fails, we just get out of here before the creature finds us." The fox groaned and just leaned against the side of a ruined building. The echidna turned and looked up at the sky again. _Strange...I sense something else...something dark...  
_Piro went inside the building about the same time as Gryph did. When they saw Sonic and Shadow together, they stopped.  
"He's calm..." Piro blinked.  
"I'd thought he'd never calm down..." Gryph adeed.  
Piro put a hand on Shadow's shoulder. "Thank you...he's calming down now because of you."  
Chris ran up behind the others and grabbed Shadow's arm. "Shadow, what's going on?"  
Gryph looked around, feeling a dark presence. "Piro, we'd better go..."  
Gryph reached out and grabbed Piro's arm. The WHOLE group was greeted by an explosion of physical and spirital energy that went blasting out like a powerful shockwave. Shadow went flying 6 feet in one direction, Gryph in another, Piro in a third direction, and Chris in a 4th, like a compass, with Sonic in the center. The others in the area were knocked off their feet by the shockwave of magical energy. Even Shukron was greeted with a shockwave of pure energy that slammed him like being bashed with a shield. A magical flair went flying off to the east, leaving behind a magical trail of gold sparkles.  
Golden eyes snapped open the moment he was thrown by the wall of energy, blue quills raising as his anger flared up once more. Growling now he glared at the orange and red females, sharp fangs appearing with a warning hiss before turning and fleeing for the open outdoors.  
The hybrid groaned slightly as she climbed to her feet just in time to see the vampire run off. "Damnit!"

"Garrr." Shukron growled to himself as he got up, "When I find out who is responcible for that I'm going to..."  
His eyes widen as the view of the blue vampire running through the night blasted by, then he grinned. "Yes, hopefully that kid will come right to her hunter."

The fox and echidna were thrown from their feet by the magical backlash. Both slammed into a concrete wall of one of the ruined buildings. "Aaaah..." winced the fox in pain. "Wha-what was that?" asked the fox as he staggered to his feet. The echinda got up and dusted himself off, the blow against the wall hardly fazed him now. "It was some strange wave of energy coming from the building the vampire is holed up in. Some kind of backlash..."  
The fox shook his head. "A backlash..." He then pointed at something leaving the building in a hurry. Whatever it was, it was extremely fast. It ran down the street in the blink of an eye. "What was that?" "That would be our vampire." replied the echidna. "It didn't stand out with my infared sensor." "Should we chase after him?" asked the fox. The echidna shook his head no. "Not our problem, the girl didn't want our help, remember? Now come on, let's go see what happened." The two ran towards the ruined building where the other hunters were.

Piro winced as she started to stand. "OW. That hurt."  
Shadow groaned as he got up as well "What the hell hit me?"  
"Ugh" Chris moaned. "You guys okay?"  
"Yea, you?" Shadow asked.  
"Yea, what happened?"  
"I dunno...some kind of magic backlash...Chris...Sonic's ALIVE."  
"WHAT!"  
Piro looked around and saw the trail of magic sparks headed to the east. "What the hell is this?"  
Shadow looked. "Looks like a magic trail."  
Piro blinked. "Maybe it's a way out of this dump."  
Shadow shook his head. "Not without Sonic."  
Rubbing her forehead with a hand the red colored hybrid moved over towards Shadow and his human friend. "Shadow, where me and Prio came from, it was you who died during a mission. When Sonic found out... Well... He lost it and been in a rage for years." Opening her wings slightly to check for any damage from the backlash she frowned slightly in thought. "I wonder tho... Why did a backlash occur when placed my hand on your shoulder Piro, its never happened before."

"Hmph. I wonder if I could use the hedgehog as bait." Shukron thought to himself with a scheming chuckle "Yes, that _would_ work heh heh heh, yes."  
"Better yet, why don't I..." He thought to himself, "Yes, that would work even better." With his last thought he bolted out after the blue hedgehog, his swords drawn and his mind searching for his new target.  
"As soon as I get..." he thought to himself, "Hehehe, yes they'll be so damn confused after this."

The orange fox and black echidna walked inside the ruined building with Piro, Gryph, and Shadow. "Can anyone mind telling me what just happened right now? DK here says you guys had some sort of magic overload?" shouted the fox. The black echidna chuckled. "Oh yeah, by the way...your 'hunt' just escaped outside. Considering how fast the sucker is, he should be at the other end of the city by now. I hope you guys like running."  
Piro glared at the other two. "I don't need to be lectured on Sonic's speed. I been after him for a while now."  
She looked back at Gryph. "Track and port?"  
Shadow was a little more irrational and went running in the direction he saw Sonic take off.  
"Never mind," Piro frowned. "Change of plans, let Shadow grab Sonic."  
She glared at the fox and marched up to him. "And YOU! What the hell is your problem? You attacked us for no damn reason then you get all pissy about me trying to do my job which, by the way, has NOTHING to do with you."  
Chris sighed, leaning against a wall where Bokkun was at.  
The red griffin rabbit hybrid blinked as she watched the black hedgehog race off in the direction Sonic fled in. "I'll follow him alright Piro?"

"Hmph." Shukron thought as he noticed a powerful Ki approching, "Something, is following me."  
He flew to the side of a building, and ducked into one of the alleys, moments later a black hedgehog blasted by.

The echidna noticed on Gryph that she was carrying a crossbow. _She's the one huh? She looks like some sort of mage, I'll have to have Draco pull out the Caster if even thinks of shooting me again._ Meanwhile the fox quickly pointed back at Piro. "For your information, we're on official business too. We thought you were the enemy, big deal. Get over it! It's not everyday that you get a job to nab a smuggling cheap-ass mob boss that coincedently is worth more than uptight snotty holier-than-thou spellcasters such as yourself!" The echidna was a little surprised by his comrade, usually he'd try to be a lot smoother when trying to pick up girls...  
Piro rubbed her temples in frustration. "Oh Hope save me..." She looked up at him. "Look around you. This planet is dead. I don't think your target is here. Secondly, I don't think your money is of any use here."

Shadow, meanwhile, used a Chaos Control and grabbed Sonic's hand. "Sonic, WAIT! Talk to me! Please!"  
The blue hedgehog gave a yelp of surprise at being grabbed, spinning around to hiss only to stop at seeing it was Shadow. "Let me go! They'll kill me!"  
Shadow held on tightly, not letting go of Sonic. "No they won't. I won't let them, but you need to CALM DOWN first, okay?"  
Sonic growled slightly when the black hedgehog refused to let go and stopped trying to break Shadow's grip on his arms. A slight hint of red clouded his gold eyes as he glared. "Why should I calm down? Your supposed to be dead!"  
Shadow gripped onto Sonic tightly. "I know, but I'm right here, and I need you to calm down for me, please.I want...need...to talk to you, but I can't very well do that if you won't listen to me."  
Golden eyes blinked for a moment before the blue hedgehog calmed down. His nose told him that Shadow was indeed real and alive, as well as his heart, but his mind didn't want to beleive it quite yet. "I'm listening..."  
Shadow took a deep breath. "You'll find this hard to believe, but we been pulled in from different dimentions. You came from one dimention, and I came from another. BUT, before you get upset, I want to let you know, that in my world, my Sonic died. I miss him so...but I see something in you that makes me think, that you ARE the same one...only from another place...I only hope you see the same in me..."  
Disbelief showed within Sonic's golden eyes at the explanition, the lonelyness and pain he's gone through showing within the confused orbs. "But... How did we end up here if different dimention..."  
Shadow looked at Sonic, to try and lock eyes with him. "Chaos Control. It must of sent our different groups here. For what,m I don't know. Perhaps we'll need to find out."  
Shadow sighed and looked back up. "However, the important thing is..." He touched Sonic's face. "We're back together again."  
Golden eyes searched Shadow's ruby ones for a few minutes before they turned gentle, loosing the cold hard look he had for years. "Your right... But... What will the others say...?"

Close to the center of the blighted city, a large open space dotted with blackened trees, dry, crumbling streamcourses and collapsed bridges. Nothing moved in this place, just like the rest of the city, death had come and withered the life in very inch of it. Only the faint whispering of the wind caused brief noises in the dead park.  
"HELLO...CAN ANYONE HERE ME? I COULD DO WITH A LITTLE HELP!"  
He'd been stuck, upside down in this tree for bloody hours now. He'd been relaxing after another successful mission when suddenly, FLASH, SWOOSH, THUD, CREAK. He'd wound up hanging by one leg from the branches of this dead tree.  
"HELLO...?"  
He was sure there had to be someone around, although the sound of explosions and bright flashes of light hadn't exactly improved his mood. If there really where people here, then meeting them might not be such a good idea, people that caused explosions weren't really...his kind of people.  
Let's face it, he was stuck. His foot was wedged tightly between the branches, so pulling himself up and untangling it wasn't going to work. Cutting himself down with his lightsabre was a non starter as well, as he was about 20 feet up and he really didn't want to find out how soft the ground was using his head.  
"I'm hanging from a tree and no ones helping me, dum di dum...something something..." Martyn sang quietly to himself as he dangled back and forth. His large black overcoat was really starting to annoy him; it was dangling down below his head and every time the wind blew, it acted like a sail, causing him to swing too and fro.  
His leg in the branches was beginning to itch.  
"HEEELLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"  
Strange things had been popping in to his mind of the last twenty minutes, probably to do with all the blood rushing to his head or something.  
"COME AND SEE THE AMAZINGLY REALISTIC HEDGEHOG PINYATA! ONLY FIVE BUCKS A SWING...COME ON...WIN A PRIZE!"  
There was a sudden chill in the air. Something was moving down below.  
Martyn blinked. There was...a fuzzy whitish figure looking up at him.  
"Oh hi there...I don't suppose you've got a ladder on you?"  
No reply.  
"Uh...help?"  
Nothing.  
"Spreken zich Mobian?"  
Silence.  
"Me...Stuck...Understand?...you...help...me...get...down." Martyn spoke very slowly and loudly, then mumbled "Or so help me, when I get down I'm going to play Unlisenced Dentist with my fist and your teeth!"  
The figure just continued to stare at him, never blinking, never moving.  
Martyn was really getting dizzy now.  
"Ohh, I'm selling these fine leather jackets...Look over there, a three headed monkey...Ha ha, how appropriate, you fight like a cow...A rubber chicken with a pully in the middle, what use is that?"  
A thick fuzzy fog began to obscure Martyns mind. He blinked groggily and saw more whitish figures approaching, all looking up at him.  
Martyn grinned.  
" I see dead people..."  
He blacked out.

Shukron looked around as faint cries for help echoed into his ears, his only thought was getting back to what he was though.  
"Hmph, if someone is foolish enough to get hurt out here, its their own fault." he thought to himself with a mind driven cold by concentration over the task at hand, "I might help him, after I've what I want."  
He focused his energies and atuned his sences to the spiritual and mental energies and saw the the two hedgehogs where together and quite a ways ahead of him, two larger mental powers, one dwarfing the other, laid near the massive explosion with two puny spirits next to them, yet another faint, weak, and pathetic force was senced in the direction of the screams.  
"Hmph, so she hasn't moved yet" he irritatedly thought to himself, "I'll have to pick the perfect time to strike, otherwize..." he shakes his head at the thought and concentrates again on the task at hand.

One long red ear twitched slightly before glancing outside the building. "Piro, I thought I heared someone cry out for help..."  
"Tell us something we don't know moron! We know this dirtball is dead from the moment we were warped here. Blasted unstable Chaos Emeralds... And as far as I know, if I'm here and DK's here, then I'm sure as hell our target and most likely his heavily armed bodyguards are here too." shouted the fox getting more angry at Piro. The black echidna stepped outside; it sounded like someone was calling for help out there...  
Piro growled. "That isn't nessicarily the fact..." Her head flipped towards where she DID hear the cries for help. "IN the meantime, if we ever wanna get outta here, I suggest we stop bickering and move our butts." She turned and headed off in the direction of the sound.  
Nodding slightly in agreement the griffin hybrid gave her long wings a flip before settling them along her back. "Who knows, maybe whoever it is that is calling for help is a native here tho with how things stand, I doubt it."

Shukron turned his dark, brooding eyes in the direction of the magi muttering, "This is taking far too long, how I long for the power I had in the past, before the power, that the grand-mage of Morvonus forced into my swords, faded. Oh, how I long for what I was before this form became my prision. **I WILL HAVE WHAT I HAVE LOST BACK**... at any costs."  
His final thoughts where inturrupted by the cries for help once more, "Irritating fool!" He angerly thought to himself. "Perhapse I should silen... wait, yes... heh, make him scream louder, then they will surely come to his aid, yes."  
There, with his scheme in mind, he began slowly moving through the shadows, making sure never to be seen, and tracking all those around to prevent being detected.

Piro walked with Chris (with Bokkun flying overhead) ahead of the fox and echidna as they went to search for the person in trouble. "I can't believe her...she's so...arrogant." grumbled the fox. The echidna sighed, he still had much to learn with dealing with girls. "I mean, Cain's gotta be here, that white blast engulfed all of us, right?" The echinda stood silent, as if he was in deep thought. The fox shook his head in frustration, to him nothing was going right at all. Meanwhile, the black echidna felt something else that was evil. He didn't know what it want but whatever it was it's too close to them.  
Piro finally found the person in trouble, a hedgehog. "Hmm, he looks unconcious. G, can ya get him down?"  
One long ear twitched slightly for a moment before unfolding her wings and leapt upwards, flying up higher than the unconcious hedgehog. With the branches being as thick as they are she'd have to fall down into them in order to reach them. "I am going to hate this..." Sighing she folded them once more to drop, green eyes narrowed against the twigs and thin branches before grabbing a large one to stop her decent as close as she could get. "How did... OW! He get stuck, stupid branch, up in this tree?"

Shukron came up from the shadows of a building, and saw the red griffin hanging from the branch of the tree.  
"SHIT, they already got to him." he thought as he reclusively backed into the shadows once more.  
As he backed up on all four his irritatedly wagging tail knocked over a small tin can which hit the ground and bounced around with a loud metalic clanging sound before coming to rest on the ground.  
"SHIT!" Shukron whispered to himself before blinking into a nearby building, and out of sight.

The fox's ears twitched when he heard the metallic _clang_ of the can hitting the ground. "Hey, what was that?" asked the fox. The echinda heard the can too and looked around suspiciously. He then turned to Piro. "Hey you!" he shouted, "There something else here you haven't told us about yet?"  
Piro looked around. "No, but that I did hear..." She pulled out her sword and started sneaking towards the noise.  
The griffin hybrid was too busy trying to get to the hanging hedgehog to notice much else, grinding her beak in frustration before biting the branches out of her way. Finally reaching the place where he had his foot caught in a branch she gently lifted him up to free the trapped limb. "I got him!"

Shukron used his sence aura to detect the movements of those 6 stories below him while he thought, "Hunting the master of evasion isn't easy."  
He walked to the window and saw Gryph holding the unconcious hedgehog.  
"Hmph, I wonder if he will be worth anything in the end." he thought grinning.  
He turned his attention back to those below, then picked up a small rock from the floor of the 6th story's floor, then chucked it out an open window and grinned as it struck the ground with a loud rockish sound quite the distance from his location, then hid in the shadows of the room.

The loud clunk of the rock was just barely heard by the fox and echidna. "Something's out there...sounds like he's moving." said the fox. The echidna held his hand out in front of him. "Wait." he said. The echinda looked upwards towards the ruined buildings. _Where are you? You can't hide from em forever._ "No. We stay here with the hedgehog. I got a feeling someone's trying to lure us out." Said the echinda. The fox nodded and walked towards the unconsious hedgehog.

"Hey"  
Something shook his shoulder gently.  
"Huhhhhh." Martyn let out a low bleary moan.  
Someone shook his shoulder again.  
"It's okay, your out of the tree, how on Mobius did..."  
The red hedgehog blinked at the group standing around him. He turned his head to look at the red griffin kneeling beside him.  
"Hey, I think he's coming round." The voice came from a blurry figure off to the left.  
"Oh Aunty Em, I had the most wonder full dream about a strange place. You where there, and you, and you." He pointed round the group until he reached DK "And you where there too Toto." He blacked out again.  
The group all gave each other sideways glances. Dk looked like he was going to strangle Martyn were he lay.  
"You didn't drop him on his head when you got him down from the tree did you G?"  
Draco shook his head. " At least we know there's a lunatic asylum around here somewhere!"  
Chris glanced up towards the sky, which seemed to been promising a storm since they arrived. "We should find some shelter, I get the feeling we shouldn't stay out in the open for too much longer. Also, it looks like it's getting dark."  
"How can you tell, it always seems to be getting darker round here." Bokkun gave the concussed hedgehog a quick kick. "And how are we going to get this lump to move?"  
DK stepped over Martyn, grabbed the front of his trenchcoat with one hand and slung him roughly over his right shoulder. "Let's go!"  
Gryph and Draco picked up some of the shattered branches for firewood as the group headed for a large building that looked like it had been a department store at one time.

High above, on a skyscraper overlooking the park, Shukron watched. The group where seeking shelter, taking the unconcious hedgehog with them. He gazed up at the sky and smiled as the darkness slowly gathered above him. He liked the night, it was full of shadows and distant noises that unsettled and chilled to the bone.  
He turned his back on the park and stepped into the shadows, just a flurry of snowflakes began to decend from the sky.  
"Let the fun begin."

Piro looked around. "I think we need to find Sonic and Shadow first before we do anything else."  
Gryph looked at her. "What about the hunt?"  
"Forget it. We only hunted him because Shadow was dead. Now with this Shadow around, perhaps we don't have to worry anymore..."  
The red griffin nodded slowly as she watched the unconcious hedgehog. "I do beleive he is also not from this world. How else can you explain him being within the tree like he was?"

Shukron's eyes narrowed on the group as they took shelter, then with one powerful blast of mental energy forced the image of hell into the minds of everyone around him before lowering into the shadows, being hidden from sight and evilly grinned to himself.  
His glowing scarlet eyes narrowed on Gryph as he grinned with a toothy, evil, and morbid grin.

Shadow looked in Sonic's eyes for a long time before hugging him. "I don't care. Nothing, and I MEAN nothing will try to seperate me from you ever again." He bit his lower lip. "I have SO many questions..." He finally pulled away to look into his eyes again. They were so deep, yet so alien. The eyes of the Sonic he knew were green. This one had golden amber. That's when they heard Piro shrieking with absolute fear in the distance. "Piro's in trouble!"

It came out of nowhere to all of them. In an instant, everything seemed peaceful (if you call a ruined city peaceful), and then the next moment, everyone was seeing everyone's worst fears in front of them. An image of the underworld itself materialized in front of them, showing hell in all of it's damned glory. Piro literally jumped towards Draco as huge hordes of what looked like vampires fleeing towards her. Damned souls began to fly around the scared group. DK at first looked as if he was going to panic, then just closed his eyes and tried not to bear it. When it looked as if all of hell was going to collapse into all of them...it was gone.  
Everyone looked at each other all sprawled around the street, everyone having a confusing look on their faces. Piro and Draco were still holding onto each other. As soon as they realized it they quickly shoved each other away in disgust. DK screamed loudly and burst into a run, towards one of the skyscrapers overlooking the park. "DK, wait!" shouted the fox. _Thanks for your little illusion, now I know where to find you._ he thought to himself with a small grin.  
Piro rubbed her head, looking like she was about to throw up as she got up, glaring at the fox that tried to kill her earlier. Then she remembered about the red hedgehog and ran to Gryph. The red hedgehog had been accidently dropped after that little illusion. She knelt byt his side to get a good look. For once she gained a sympathetic look on her face. 'Oh, you poor thing.' she thought as she began to shake his shoulder. "Hey...hey wake up...wake up, are you alright?"  
Gryph looked at her with a suprised look. Piro was never this sweet with strangers.  
Sonic and Shadow ran up to the others. "You guys okay? We heard Piro screaming."

Martyn blinked. The streets that surrounded him where familiar, he'd walked down them half his life. There was the slight acrid smell of industrial fumes in the air and a grey shroud over the sky, he was back, back in Robotropolis.  
"What the hell was that." He had memories of a strange place, of hanging upside down in a tree, of shadowy white figures reaching up at him with cold, dead hands. "Man, that was creepy, I must have been daydreaming."  
He shuddered as he walked down the street, pulling his overcoat tighter to keep out the encroaching chill.  
A movement in the corner of his eye made him freeze. There it was again, a sudden sense of movement off to the left. Then it was on the right, now the left again. He reached into his coat for his lightsabre...and found the clip empty. He paniced and reached for the Macro Uzi on his right thigh, only to find the holster empty as well.  
"Oh shit!" He broke into a run, trying to put as much distance between him and whatever the hell was chasing him. Something was very wrong, he'd never leave the hideout without his weapons, it was unthinkable and exteremly stupid.  
He saw it again, this time it was crawling horizontaly across the wall behind him.  
"Oh fuck, OH FUCKING FUCK." He was scared very nearly out of his wits as he ran full tilt, arms pumping, breath coming in ragged gasps. His eyes widened in fear as he saw the road ahead blocked by fallen masonry, so high that he'd never be able to scramble up in time.  
He was about to double back, when he saw that the road behind him had become blocked. "Oh you have got to be shitting me." He'd just run past that bit not five seconds ago and he hadn't heard anything falling. Now he was trapped, weaponless and being hunted by something that could crawl across walls.  
A sudden hiss made him spin round. Three black shadows stood before him, he knew their shapes, they where the same mysterious mechs that had ambushed him at Rael's factory. They stood in the same staggered V they had at the factory and just like before, slim blades slid from their wrists without a sound. They advanced on him slowly, the slight hiss of servos tweeking Martyn's terror to a peak.  
He began to step back, only to bump into something hard. He spun and a scream caught in his throat as another of the mechs stood behind him, then in a flash grabbed Martyn by the throat, lifted him into the air and plunged the thin blade between his ribs, puncturing his lung.  
Martyn gave a wet gasp as blood bubbled up from his mouth. "Huuuuuuuuuugluugllugluu!"  
Another stab of pain and his right lung was pierced. The pain was overwealming as he gazed up at the sky. Through a haze of blood and tears, he saw a black shape appearing, one baleful red eye gleamed at him as a giant hand reached for him. He closed his eyes and readied himself for the end.  
The Mech below him pulled back his blade for a final strike, aimed straight for Martyn's heart. It struck.  
Martyn was aware of pain for a brief moment, then a shuddering. He mustered the strength to look around and saw the buildings around him dissolving like sand blown by the wind. Looking down he saw the mechs blade piercing his chest, but something was wrong, the mech was twisted and distorting as if all the air was being sucked out of it. The same was happening to the other mechs behind it.  
In a moment, they had crumpled into nothing and Martyn was alone in a desert of grey sand, a black starless sky stretching above him to an endless horizon.  
"Time to wake up Stranger!"  
He raised his head slowly and saw the same baleful red eye glaring at him, but the shadow was no longer blurred. Before him stood a black echidna, his hands, legs and right eye robotasized.  
"DK?" Martyn murmered weakly.  
The black echinda tilted his head slightly as if suprised at the recognision. Then he vanished, leaving the hedgehog alone.  
"Hey...hey wake up...wake up, are you alright?"  
The voice was soft and full of concern, like a warm breeze in a frozen landscape.  
Martyn woke with a start, yelled and scambled backwards, his eyes radiating pure, undiluted terror.  
"Hey, it's all right, it's all right." The voice spoke again with gently urgency.  
Martyn bumped into something behind him and he spun on his back with adrenalin driven agility.  
"No...it can't be you're...you're dead!" He gasped as he stared up at the blue hedgehog.  
He was suddenly aware of arms closing around him from behind and a flurry of hair as a head was gently layed on his shoulder.  
"Shhhhh, it's alright. It's over." The touch was warm and comforting after the nightmare he'd just experienced. " There, that's it, you're safe now.""  
"Where am I?" Martyn muttered weakly. "Who are you?"  
"My names Piro. And you're among friends."  
Martyn let out a faltering breath as he closed his eyes and sat, welcoming the soft kindness of contact.  
"I'm...I'm Martyn."  
Sonic merely blinked slowly as he watched the red hedgehog, that was a second person that thought he was dead so far and it annoyed him to no end. Golden eyes looked around, something scared these mortals complety, he could scent the fear on the air. "Let me guess... You've all had visions of hell just play around you no?"  
Emerald eyes blinked as the griffin looked towards him before looking back up towards the skyscraper. The moment she had relized what was going on she had raised her mental defencives to block out the fear inducing energies that had affected them. "The cause of it I sense is up that building somewhere. Whatever it is has mental powers, thats how it was able to scare us like this."

Shukron walked back to the window of the sky scraper and stared out at the group and saw DK running for the building alone. His eyes matched the hybrid griffins, before turning his attention to DK.  
He grinned at them, then aimed his hand down at DK and mutterd something as a small fireball formed in his palm and shot out of it towards the black enchidna. At the same time another fireball about the same size shot from his palm into the center of the room.  
Moments later, the room exploded blasting out all of the glass windows in a 50 foot radius; raining shads of glass down upon the nearby ground.  
The wolf appeared in a dull flash of light in another, darkened room, but a diffrent building, with a insidious grin smirked on as he still had a clear view of his quary.  
He forced a thought to Gryph, "Face me...alone."

The wind flowed about the ruins of the city, showing just how hollow the place was. Grey skies, charred earth, and demolished buildings all converged into a single monument to ruination.  
A lone figure walked among the debris, wearing a trenchcoat as grey as the skies above. Golden flames licked the trim of the coat, as it flowed effortlessly behind him. His human face didn't show any expression from beneath his brown hair, and his emerald eyes seemed to miss their luster.  
_How...did I even end up here?_  
He walked slowly, for he didn't know exactly where he was going to go. This place was the only sign of civilization, even if it was now extinct. He gazed skyward, and clutched a small amulet in his right hand...even that felt cold to him now.  
The amulet was silver...in the shape of two angel's wings. He remembered who he used to be, who and what he was...his name.  
_No...that's not who I am anymore..._  
He walked this world feeling like just another lost soul. Sol close to the light at one point, but now...gone. He almost fell to Oblivion once, and it stained him black ever since. He felt like he was floating between sky and sea, life and death.  
He just...was.  
_My name is Gray now...Gray Undone._  
The sound of an explosion caught his attention, coming from large skyscraper that was still more or less intact. The sound of shattering glass raining down on the streets jingled in his ears. He stopped, and listened for a moment longer.  
Someone else was here.  
He turned toward the direction, and resumed his walk. He shot his arms out to his sides, forcing two blades to flip from his wrists into his hands.  
Katars.

DK saw the firey projectile blazing towards him, as well as the huge explosion coming from the building. With a smack of his metallic wrist he quickly swats the fireball away, sailing into another building causing another loud explosion. "It helps to be fire resistant, damned fool." DK looked at the building to sense his prey's presence; there was none. _What? Where did he go?_ A voice appeared in his head. _Face me...alone._ It wasn't for him, but for that red griffin. That mattered little to Dark Knuckles, except the fact that his prey was still alive. He quickly ran to his next destination. He would follow him to the ends of this dead planet if he had to...  
Piro watched DK take off, before eying Draco. She then eyed Sonic. In reaction, Shadow pulled Sonic into a protective hug. She looked back up at Gryph. "Okay guys, until we find a way back home, I'm calling for a truce. ALL of us..." She glared at Draco pointedly. She layed a hand on Shadow's shoulder. "I'm not gonna hurt him. On my honor as a hunter." Shadow looked at her for a very long time before sighing and nodded.  
"Thank you," Piro said before looking back up at the red hedgehog. "If you're okay now, um..." Piro fumbled over her words for a moment.  
Gryph sighed and grabbed her hand. "Come on, princess-"  
Chris grabbed Shadow's arm. "We'd better get out of here."  
"Wait-" Shadow started, grabbing Piro's other hand.  
Like a gun recoiling, the five, Gryph, Piro, Chris, Sonic, and Shadow, were knocked backwards onto their backs. An orange flare-like firework screamed up towards a building, blasting into it with a huge explosion. When the dust settled, Piro was the first, getting up coughing. "What in the name of Hope was THAT!"  
Shadow coughed, getting up and helping Sonic to his feet. When he looked to see what building had blown up, he was the first to point. "LOOK!"  
Standing where the building used to be, was a dark figure, with red eyes. And it sure as hell wasn't Shadow.  
Emerald eyes narrowered dangerously as she laid eyes on the one who had sent her the mental challange. Large wings flared open before the griffin hybrid lept for the sky, the downdraft knocking the others back down as she rose higher. "Who ever it is seems to be after me guys, as I was just been given a mental challange."  
Sonic's quills had tensed and raised the moment he got back to his feet, pure fury showing on his face as that was the second time he's been blasted from his feet and he was not liking it at all. "So he shows up a second time now? Nice fellow that tried to scare me earlier."  
Shukron laughed to himself as she came and spoke to her again with his mind, "Exelent, now that I have your atention, come down here. Worry not, I swear by the honor of the old code that I wont harm you for now."

Dark Knuckles ran for cover as the powerful magic bolt destroyed the building Shukron was hiding in. As he poked his head out of the rubble he could finally see his target. It looked like a wolf, but his eyes were a brilliant red. _Well well well, so you're the one that's been causing me so much grief. Time for you to die now._ Said the echidna with a grin as his robotic eye targeted the creature and locked on. Malfunction errors began appearing in his eyesight again. DK swore to himself that his shoulder plasma cannon was still disabled by that blasted griffon. DK tried to figure out ways to kill him quickly. His fire blasts are powerful, but the creature would probably notice and dodge them before they could hit him. He could glide towards him; one good swipe with his katana would be enough to end this. There was no other buildings tall enough nearby to get a good pass on him. DK swore again as he saw the red griffon hybrid fly towards the target. _All right, I'll wait for you to come down then. As soon as you lay one finger on the ground you will die._ thought the echidna to himself as he drew his katana slowly. He slowly then blended in with the shadows of a dark alley just below Shukron and the approaching Gryph.

Draco dusted himself off after picking himself off the ground once again. Now he know where that magical overload came from. "What the hell was is the matter with you guys?" he shouted towards Piro and the two hedgehogs. He hated mages, wizards, sorcerers, etc. All that arcane magic seriously irritated him to no end. He seriously was hating Piro, now, her arrogance was going to drive him up a wall. What's worse, now Piro is letting the vampire tag along! Draco didn't trust him at all, and he probably knew it. He'd probably now have to have a stake in his hand just so he can go to sleep at night...  
Piro growled now. "WE DIDN'T DO SHIT! I dunno what happened there!"  
By this time, Shadow was a little more than pissed off as he glared at the figure in the distance. "Okay, fuck this, I'm ending this right now." He looked at Sonic and took his hand. "Come on, I want you to stay with me."  
Piro grabbed Shadow's hand. "I'm going too, Gryph's in serious trouble."  
Piro looked back at Chris and pointed to Martyn. "Take care of him and fill him in on what's happening."  
Chris nodded as Shadow began to focus. "CHAOS-"  
Draco growled. "Oh no you don't!" He grabbed a hold of Piro just as Shadow finished shouting. "-CONTROL!"  
They flashed out, only to pop in right in front of Shukron.  
"Okay, you little shit. What the HELL is your problem!" Shadow growled at Shukron.  
Piercing emerald eyes glared downwards at him as she began to circle the destroyed building calmly. Knowing the creature was a telepath now she returned her message the same route. I don't think so foul one. You've tried to scare us to death as well as trying to blow us up. I cannot trust your word  
Sonic was still feeling highly pissed and edgy now, hissing angerly at the fox and lashed out with sharp claws extended to get him to let go of Piro, ignoring the creature Shadow was yelling at.  
Draco quickly let go of Piro and before Sonic's sharp claws tore him into pieces. _Blasted vampire! Now I really don't trust him!_ he thought to himself. Sonic continued to growl at him. If there was one thing that all vampires seriously hated was light. Sunlight was lethal, although he wasn't sure if this one would be affected by it. Draco had in his jacket a set of powerful flares in case he was in dark areas. It was certainly enough light to blind Draco as well. Sonic didn't look as if he were going to attack now that he was no longer on Piro, but he kept his hand in his pocket while listening to Shukron talk...

Shukron instinctively blasted back as they came into view, the force creating a small gust of wind that blasted over them, there he stood with his swords defencively drawn and his back to the wall as his eyes focused on Shadow's in a distrusting manner.  
He grinned then spoke in his deep, ancient voice, "You want to know what my problem is, huh?" He growled and blast images from his memories through thier minds; morbid images of Tails, Knuckles, Sonic, Shadow, and Amy all lieing dead. Tails was riddled with holes, as was Amy, Knuckles and Shadow appeared to have died from a poisionous has of some sort but appeared to have been coated in a thin layer of mustard, while Sonic laied on the floor of some forsaken sea, chained to the bottom and oviously died of drowning. Then a vissage of Eggman laughing appeared as Shukron's voice faded in, "He killed them, all of them. Amy was the first of his victums, that threw sonic over the edge and lead to his death as Eggman fought him from his stronghold in the middle of the sea. Tails tried to avenge the blue hedgehog, but even though I tried to protect him, eggman seperated us and gunned the boy down. Knuckles fell victum to Eggman's indirect forms of attack, mustard gas, as did Shadow."  
Images then began to flow through their minds, images of Eggman's stronghold, "I tried to avenge them, I swore to Tails that Eggman would die by my sword, yet by then my powers had already faded to what they are now. This... Weakness frightens me as it may signalfy more than just one thing."  
The image of Eggman lieing on the ground shot into their minds now, Shukron had his sword to Eggman's throte, but then to his dismay a bright flash of light consumed him.  
"I was so close to ending that bastard's life, now so far." he thought to them as the image of the scarred dead planet appeared in their minds, "When the light faded, I was in this forsaken place. I senced a great deal of power in this ruined city, I knew exactly its sources, yet as soon as I felt it, the uncontrolable urge to take that power and become my true self overwhelmed me. Vision blurred, the only thing that mattered was being as I was, foolish was I to let myself be taken away by such petty emotions."  
The image of a massive scaled demi-human blast into their minds, the very image felt powerful and finally he spoke again, "That is who I am, I shouldn't have stayed in this form, it was foolish."  
"You asked me what my problem was?" he asked, "Aside from my failure to protect the one that summoned me into his dimention, my problem is that I long to have what was once mine, that no matter how hard I try I'll ne'er more be able to have that on my own, and must take what I need from others in order to become what I seek, I could always repay them later. Maybe I can repay you for the trouble, yes?"

Chris didn't really want to leave his friends in danger, but there wasn't really much he could do, not when he had to get the latest member of the group out of harms way.  
" Here, give me your arm!" Chris leant down and slowly helped prop Martyn up. "Can you walk?"  
"Sure." Martyn took a step forward and buckled as his left foot hit the ground. "Ahhh, DAMN IT! Looks like my left's going to be out of action for a bit, but don't worry, I can still hop fast enough."  
"Oh, let's head for that old department store. Bokkun, can you grab the firewood Gryph dropped?"  
"Do I look like your Butler to you?"  
"We don't have time to argue, come on!"  
Muttering Bokkun gathered up the dropped branches and floated after Chris.  
"So, how'd you wind up in that tree?"  
"Damned if I know. One minute I was sitting in my room in the resistance hideout, there's a sudden flash of light, then I'm hanging from a tree."  
" Why'd you say Sonic was dead?"  
"Because where I'm from he is." Martyn looked away, not wanting to catch Chris' eye. "We...we kinda killed him."  
" WHAT, HOW?" Chris nearly dropped Martyn.  
" Well, Sonic went to foil one of Robotniks latest plans and..."  
" Robotnik, you mean Eggman?" interupted Chris.  
"Yeah, sure, probably. Anyway, Sonic broke into Buttniks base and headed to where we thought the latest doomsday device was. But it turned out to be a trap and Sonic got locked in a stasis field. Now by this time, Sonic hasn't chacked in, so we figure somethings wrong, and go for plan B, Blow the shit out of the power generators. Unfortunately, Buttnik had gone and opened a portal to somewhere or other, although we only found out later. Just as he's about to throw Sonic through the portal, BAM, we blow the generator, this causes an overload in the portals systems and completely levels the base. We got rid of Robotnik, but we'd sacrificed our own hero to do it."  
"How'd you know you got rid of Robotnik? And how do you know that it was you that overloaded the generators?"  
"When we searched the ruins for any sign of Sonic, we found a Hard Shell Storage Mainframe, those things can survive a nuke going off right next to them. It had all the data, systems analysis and security footage we needed to realise what we'd done. As for Robotnik. When you find the mans severed arm and a whole lot of blood, you don't ask questions."  
They limped along in silence, Chris glancing ove his shoulder as the sound of fighting ensued behind them.  
" So the resistance isn't dispanded, even after Eggma...Robotnik's gone?"  
"Ha, I wish. Turns out there where a few members of the resistance who weren't as altruistic as you'd think. Main one was an Echidna called Rael, real nasty piece of work, lead an uprising as soon as Sonic was out the way. The resistance split into various gangs, now there's just an ongoing turf-war between the whole bunch of them."  
"What about you?"  
"Me, I'm one of the 'Insane Ones'. There's six of us, Julie-su, she used to be the leader of the resistance. Draco, DK, Gryph and Fury.  
Chris glanced sideways at the hedgehog.  
"Why 'Insane Ones'? Is that your gang name."  
Martyn gave a snort of laughter.  
"Gang, Ha. We're called the 'Insane Ones' by the rest of the gangs because where the only ones left who still follow the code of the Resistance."  
"So you're kinda keeping the memory of the resistance alive?"  
"Kid, we are the Resistance!"  
"Oh, just the six of you?"  
"Yeah, hence the nickname. Thing is, now we spend our time trying to stop one group from wiping out the others. Draco says it's like trying to blow out a candle with a flamethrower!"  
"So your fight's never over?"  
"Nope, we've just swapped one enemy for another."  
The three of them reached the entrance to the store just as an explosion rattled the glass front. As Chris levered open the doors, Bokkun darted inside and Martyn hopped in after him.  
"I wonder what the chances of finding some ice in here to put on my leg are?" He mused to himself.

Dark Knuckles had been seeing the images that Shukron had been placing in their minds, while climbing up the small building that Shukron stood on. Despite it's horrific nature, it didn't really matter to him, but now he understood what he wanted. _Heh, maybe I should let them go, it'd take care of two annoying pests for me. But then again, it pissed me off..._ thought DK. He continued climbing, jabbing his two metal knuckles on each hand into the wall.  
Gryph only continued to remain in the air as she circled, emerald eyes watching the group calmly before looking towards the half robotic echdina. She knew he was still angry from what happened earlier.

Piro growled. "This is getting really old, really fast." She turned to Sonic. "YOU! COOL IT!" She then looked at Shadow. "You, control him." She turned to Draco. "YOU-" Her fist shook with rage. "Don't move." She then turned to Shukron. "You, two words: Anger Management. Okay, you lost a lot of people you cared for. You still have no right to take your anger out on complete strangers and try to steal their powers for your own selfish gain. Ever tried ASKING? Or has the concept ever occured to you? You only make enemies from stealing from the likes of us. What's more, you're directing yourself on my best friend, and when you mess with my best friend, you mess with me. Now, the lot of us got yanked here from our respective dimentions. We've all had bullshit to deal with, you're not the only forsaken 'woe is me' vengance seeking bullcow in Existance! I'm sick of you dudes falling into utter depression. You may think its the end of the world, but its not. NOT if you put your trust into the one. Hope. And don't gimme that bull crap about-" And she stated in a mocking whiney voice. "'Well where was he when I needed him!'" Then she went back into her anger mode. "STUFF IT! Your selfish whiney needs is NOT gonna get what you want, and Hope will NOT help those who are selfish. Now let go of this anger, or let yourself be destroyed, along with ANY chance you might have of seeing any of your friends alive again!"  
Sonic merely hissed angerly at Piro, blue quills raised in anger at the tone of voice she used at him. "YOU DO NOT TELL ME WHAT TO DO YOU STUPID HUNTER!" The hedgehog took a step forward before stopping at feeling a hand on his shoulder, glaring for a moment before relizing it was Shadow and settled down to angry grumblings instead of attacking.  
Shurkon hostered his swords and crossed his arms as he grinned saying, "So full of 'hope' you are. Teh! Young people, so irritating. Someday you will learn that there is no hope, or will you? Such beings such as..." his voice changed to an insulting and disgusted tone, "YOU" he voice returned to normal, "rarely live to see the horror that exists, and live to tell about it." then with his last word he kicked some dirt in Piro's direction.  
He turned slightly and folded his arms, then turned his head to her, "I'd love to see where your 'Hope' is if you ever meet the horrors that my people face." He waved his arm before him as if signalling a horizion, "The horizon, an endless sea of them, each a powerful and nearly unstoppable killing machine." He angerly held his fist at Piro now, "And I WILL die, but not on this forsaken place... at least not without taking YOU with me." his eyes narrowed on Piro, "Understand?"  
He blasted the image of a long dead battle field, trillions layed dead, many of large lizard men, others of dead beings that resembled humans. On the horizon of this ghoulish sight a wall of shadow is moving inwards.  
The vision changed, now the image of a fallen city blasted into their minds. Dead humans and other beings laied on the ground, many missing limbs to what looks like bite marks, others half eaten. A young child runs into view only to be chased down and stabbed through the chest by a huge lizardman like being. "Kaeleodask." Shukron's voice said as it echoed through their minds, "a peaceful, democratic society where utlundaers, terrans, and all forms of life lived in almost complete harmony; until my enemies came and destroyed everything, killed every man, woman, child, and baby." his voice became increasingly angry with every word, "Those bastards have taken everything from me and Unlike YOU, I AM alone, so don't you ever tell me that I shouldn't hate!"  
The visions ceased and he looked away with an irritated expression as he said aloud, "You know not suffering! You say my, 'friends' WHAT friends, their all dead, killed by that Damned bastard Kaerron."  
He closed his and took a few deep breaths before continueing in a calmer tone, "the truth is, no matter how much we may hate it, we have a better chance of getting back to our own times by working together, but I seriously dought that YOU would understand that. Teh! I dought your mind could even-" his eyes narrowed in irritation as he looked away from Piro and put his hands on the hilts of his swords saying, "your 'FALSE' god is something that only a foolish mortal like you would believe in."  
He raised his arms to the sides and yelled aloud as if defiantly taunting the gods themselves, "IF YOUR GODS ARE SO REAL, THEN PROVE YOUR POWER OH CELESTRIAL ONES!" then lowered his arms with a grin saying, "The 'gods' are nothing more than myths and legends created by governments to control their people, and turn them into religious sheep. My gods at least are real and tangable" he grinned and leaned in a little saying, "that 'big' word means, that you can touch them."  
He held up his hand and formed a ball of fire within it boasting, "You see this? The power belongs to me, and ONLY me. What can you say about your power, hmmm?" then let the flame burn out and vanish as he said, "I'll strike a deal wit you, oh over-zeallous one. A truce between us, sort of an alliance until we get off this rock. I don't have to worry about you, and you... oh yes, you don't have to worry when you go to sleep. What do you say, hmmm?"

_Young people, so irritating. Someday you will learn that there is no hope, or will you? Such beings such as...YOU._  
_Your 'FALSE' god is something that only a foolish mortal like you would believe in._  
_IF YOUR GODS ARE SO REAL, THEN PROVE YOUR POWER OH CELESTRIAL ONES!_  
Grey heard the words spoken echoing in his head, using his ability to percieve the space around him. He focused on the soundwaves bouncing around, hoping to gain some information about the others who were here. All he got were names, however.  
Finally, he arrived on the scene. The dark figure was pointing fingers and looming over the others in an aura of malevolence that Grey could just FEEL, without using any of his power to do so. It was just...blatant.  
Always a mistake.  
"If you wanted to find a god's power..here I am," Grey opened his arms wide in an inviting gesture. "I'm not going anywhere."  
Everyone else remained silent, but Shurkon began to chuckle.  
"You laugh, dark one. I know what you're thinking. How a mortal like me could make a claim such as this. But I heard what you said earlier, out loud, to yourself. You'll soon learn to stop making such mistakes."  
"Oh? And what did I say?"  
"Let's see...I believe the exact phrase was 'This wont be much of a challenge, I'll steal all his energy and use it to get back to my true form.' I'm sure you were talking about me...you looked in my direction when you did."  
The dark figure shook his head and kept on chuckling.  
"Still finding this funny? Then...perhaps a demonstration. I want you to throw something at me. Perhaps one of those flame balls will suffice."  
Shurkon grinned. "With pleasure."  
Holding his hand out, he formed a ball of flame in his hand, and threw it at blinding speed. Grey just stood there, and closed his eyes. He clenched his fists in anticipation, drawing on the energies around him. The ball grew closer and closer to him, and when it was about to strike, the unbelievable happened.  
He shot straight up in the air.  
"What the...!"  
Grey looked at the ball, realizing that Shurkon added an..."explosive" touch to it. He raised one hand, and pointed it at the ball. He closed it into a fist, and after he did so, the ball shrank, until it disappeared.  
The human smiled, and looked back at Shurkon. "Too easy."  
"But...how!"  
"Simple. Everything exists within reality, and my specialty just so happens to be entropy. The ability to manipulate the inevitable downward spiral of any and all things within reality. Granted...I don't have COMPLETE control over this...that would take a LONG time to master. But...when combined with the other spheres of Magick, it can become quite a powerful tool.  
"What I did, Shurkon, was used the powers of entropy to break down the kinetic energies of the ball as it flew toward me. Then, I focused on the sphere of Forces, to drive it straight upward, and away from me. Using the Forces sphere, I also saw that your fireballs have a nifty trick...so I changed the makeup of the Matter within the ball. With nothing to feed the fire, the ball just disappeared into the air."  
Everyone just stared.  
"Why, you ask? Why display my power with such vulgarity?" Grey pointed a finger at Shukron. "Because I don't like people like you. You had a hard life...so what? So did I, but I'm not trying to create conflict. I'm just as stuck in this dead world as you are, so I suggest you just...shut...up."  
He then turned toward everyone else.  
"My name is Grey. Who are all of you?"

Dark Knuckles felt another presence added to the scene. He poked his head out of another pile of rubble and saw the group. The newcomer was a human, and he could literally feel the energy emitting from him. Whoever he was, he's not to be messed with. He wished to just leap out and kill the dark one, but no...he sensed it wanting to call a truce for now. He swore to himself once again that he wouldn't be able to kill him at all now.

Draco shook his head in frustration after Grey's "demonstration." The confontation with Shukron was now becoming a contest to see who was more powerful. He opened his mouth to vent his anger once again, but quickly closed it. He was already tired of dealing with Piro's arrogance, and now he didn't want to occur the wrath of a power hungry wolf, and a human that thinks he a god. Still, a truce was called and they had to find someplace for the night, as well as food and water. "Okay, since we're all friends now, how about we figure out how the hell we going to survive in this dead zone..."  
Piro sighed. "Yes, a truce. Everyone." She looked around and pointed. "Look, there's a trail pointing..."  
She pointed to the mystical path that was left when they had a magic overload earlier. "Come on, let's get Martyn and the others and see where this leads."

End Chapter One


End file.
